After the daily blog post is published here at Geebo, a link to the day’s blog post is also posted on all of Geebo’s social media accounts. This obviously includes the Geebo Facebook page where we not only post links to the blog but also share some of our users’ ads we think our customers might enjoy.

Yesterday, the blog post was about how the New York Times accused Facebook of a myriad of transgressions, however, the post mainly focused on how Facebook allegedly used some underhanded tactics to try to silence its critics. More often than not, one of our employees also posts links to that day’s blog on their personal Facebook. That employee is also a content creator in their off time who has been critical of Facebook in the past, but they never had a problem with any of the content they’ve posted. That was until yesterday when they received a notification from Facebook stating that the post goes against Facebook’s ‘Community Standards’ and it has been removed from the news feed section. Isn’t it ironic that Facebook removed a post that was critical of them for trying to silence their critics?

It was then decided to see if the post was still live on the Geebo Facebook page and it was gone like it never existed. However, in the case of the Geebo page, there was no notification of the post violating the ever-nebulous community standards such as the one posted above from our employee’s personal page. As far as could be told, the post had been wiped off the face of the earth like it had been black bagged by Facebook’s content police and shipped off to a virtual Gitmo. Our employee has reached out to Facebook but has only received a canned response stating that the matter is under review.

As a whole, we try not to be hyperbolic and we would never claim that Facebook is violating Geebo’s First Amendment right to free speech. Facebook is a private company and has every right to remove whatever content they see fit. However, we are also well within our right to point out what we believe to be evidence supporting some of the allegations that the New York Times has made. It’s one thing to disagree with your critics but it’s another matter completely when you try to rob them of their voice.

When it comes to looking for a new job, a lot of job seekers will turn to craigslist ads for new opportunities. The problem with that is that anybody can pay for a craigslist ad and claim to be an employer. This often results in deceptive ads that either misrepresent what the job really is, or they’re outright scams. Here are some tips on how to tell if a job is not legitimate.

News station WKBW out of Buffalo, New York, recently did an expose on craigslist job ads. In one instance they found a meal delivery service that promised $19/hr. but after they clicked on the ad they noticed that the pay started lowering as the ad progressed. The reporter reached out to craigslist to see how they verify their job ads but craigslist, not surprisingly, did not respond.

Here at Geebo, not only do we review our ads for legitimacy, but all our employment ads list the name of the company placing the ad. This allows you the opportunity to research the company to see if it’s the right fit for you.

We’d like to thank Nate Sterling of Magnum Star News for selecting Geebo as one of the top craigslist alternatives. In his article entitled ‘5 Best Alternative Sites to Craigslist’, Mr. Sterling states that in his opinion Geebo is one of the best classified websites. With all due respect to our esteemed competition mentioned in Mr. Sterling’s list, we like to think that we are the best.

In the close to two decades that Geebo has been in business, we’ve been an industry pioneer in many aspects. For example, we are very proud of the fact that we manually review our ads in order to greatly lessen the possibility of scams and illegal content. Geebo has always prided itself on not only being the safer community classifieds but also being a family friendly classifieds. While some classifieds sites have made their money through illicit means, Geebo has refused to follow that path.

And while the other classifieds sites mentioned in Mr. Sterling’s list have their own good qualities, a number of them still have personal ad sections. As craigslist and Backpage have shown, unmoderated personal ads can be abused by online predators and human traffickers. As an industry leader, Geebo removed its personal ads section in order to avoid putting our users in danger years before it became an issue with other websites.

While some see us as a craigslist alternative, we see ourselves more as the standard bearers for the online classifieds industry.

An example of many of the trafficking ads we’ve been receiving lately.

As I’m sure you’ve read, Backpage.com was seized this past Friday by the Federal government. Two of its founders were not only indicted, but are currently sitting in jail. From the beginning, Backpage’s business model was based on the sexual slave trade, collecting as much as 99% of their revenue from the ads placed by pimps and traffickers. While making hundreds of millions of dollars in such an illicit way, the seizure of Backpage was the only logical way this could have ended.

Since Backpage’s closure, Geebo has been receiving a torrent of ‘adult’ ad submissions for review. The keyword in that sentence is ‘review’ as Geebo has always reviewed ads for objectionable content. Thanks to the great software used under the hood at Geebo and the human curation done by our moderation staff, we have never allowed and never will allow Geebo to become a haven for those who would sell women and children into sexual servitude. Since day one and with little fanfare, Geebo has committed itself to keep its ads free from the likes posted on Backpage while maintaining a profitable business. Toward that end, Geebo was an industry trend setter when CEO Greg Collier made the decision to remove personal ads from the site in 2010 in order to prevent the ads from being abused by traffickers, where on other sites many victims are tricked into being trafficked through their personal ads.

Another great thing about Geebo is that these decisions weren’t made due to public pressure or pending legislation. These decisions were made out of something that appears to be rare in the industry these days, and that is common human decency. Craigslist shut down there adult services section only after massive public pressure from the media, and closed their personals after the passage of FOSTA/SESTA, which is almost an admission that trafficking was still taking place on their personals. When the credit card companies cut off Backpage, they became so desperate to stay in business they started accepting payment for prostitution ads in cash, Bitcoin and gift cards. If they hadn’t been raided by Federal authorities there’s no doubt that Backpage would still be collecting money for these ads. Geebo shows that a classifieds site can be run ethically without having to resort to questionable ads designed to make money off of the suffering of others.

Recently, Forbes.com published a blog post about startup classifieds apps LetGo and OfferUp and how one of them may be the latest craigslist killer. By that we mean a proverbial David taking on the Goliath of craigslist, and not one of the 100+ murderers that have used craigslist to find their victims. We’ll get to those startups in a moment, but first a comment in the article made about Geebo needs to be addressed.

Halfway down the page Geebo is dismissed by the Forbes blogger in the following manner…

Every few years, someone in Silicon Valley looks at Craigslist and thinks he or she can do better. In the late 1990s, the startled newspaper companies tried collaborating with each other on various projects, and in 2000, Geebo launched as the “safe” Craigslist. In 2004, there was Oodle, a well-financed website that later tried to incorporate Facebook identities. All these efforts basically came to naught.

The Forbes blogger seems to have not done his research as very little what he wrote about Geebo is correct. Geebo was founded in 1999, however, it was not launched as the “safe” alternative to craigslist as he put it. Geebo CEO Greg Collier founded Geebo to provide a better user experience than what was being put out by hard-copy newspapers. Not only that, but at the time of Geebo’s founding Mr. Collier had not even heard of craigslist as it had not yet become the brand that we know today. Mr. Collier even said that he didn’t want Geebo to be anything like craigslist. He also wanted Geebo to have its own users rather than trying to take users away from craigslist. Since that time Geebo has in fact marketed itself as a safer community classifieds. That’s a claim that Geebo takes very seriously considering the number of murders and other crimes that have been committed through the so-called industry leaders craigslist and Backpage. Even relative newcomer LetGo has had a couple of murderscommitted through its app.

The rest of the Forbes blog post seems to be nothing more than a love letter to OfferUp. While OfferUp may not be headquartered in Silicon Valley, it still follows the same old Silicon Valley routine. They went to venture capitalists looking for seed money in order to get their startup off the ground. And let’s face it, apps like LetGo and OfferUp are usually founded for one primary reason and that’s to be bought out by a larger company. Geebo has always been a self funded company and has maintained profitability in an industry where many startups don’t even have a monetization plan. In fact Geebo generates more net profit than craigslist per 1 million users.

This isn’t even taking into consideration that Forbes.com isn’t the financial journal of record that it once was. A few years ago they opened up their website to just about anyone who cared to write for them. They have basically become a content farm for the financial sector.

In conclusion, Geebo has been a successful business in an industry that has seen many proverbial bodies left in its wake. We were here before the startups and we’ll be here after they’re gone. All while maintaining a reputation of being an ethical and safer classifieds.

You may think you have heard this story before. In the days when the internet was mostly only accessed through computers, a tight-knit community in the Western US embraces a free local classifieds website that over the years has turned into a multi-million dollar business. That classifieds site not only has millions of users but it did so by not only keeping its ads family friendly, but not allowing adult and personal ads or ads for illegal content. While you may have thought this story was initially about craigslist, the story is actually about KSL Classifieds in the Beehive State of Utah.

While it may have the backing of the Mormon Church, you couldn’t tell by looking at the website. The KSL Classifieds is used both by Mormon and non-Mormon alike. It’s so ubiquitous throughout the state of Utah that craigslist is a mere afterthought in Utah. That’s because KSL Classifieds takes care in making sure that its site is squeaky clean and relatively safe. The site is so relied upon in Utah that people who move out of the area lament the fact that their new city doesn’t have a local alternative to KSL Classifieds that’s clean, safe and free. KSL Classifieds has even spread its sphere of influence into neighboring states.

Craigslist, on the other hand, sold its soul to the devil, so to speak, early on in its history. Its users didn’t take long before posting ads for prostitution, and its casual encounters section has led craigslist to a reputation of being a seedy and dangerous website. Due to their low level of entry, their constant refusal to moderate ads, and the number of murders committed through use of their site, craigslist has turned into a virtual hive of scum and villainy. However, some people think that there are no alternatives to the dangerous grounds of craigslist, but there are.

Geebo.com is not only a national classifieds site, but it takes great pains to keep our site from falling into the pitfalls that sites like craigslist have. From the beginning, there have never been any adult ads allowed on the site. Where other sites decided they wanted to make money on the sexual trafficking of others, Geebo has refused to sink to that level. Geebo CEO Greg Collier even decided to remove the personal ads from the site since the personal sections of too many other sites have become the personal stalking grounds of sexual predators and another avenue for online sex trafficking. Greg even took a stand on ads for pets due to the fact that too many places like puppy mills use classifieds sites to sell sick animals to unsuspecting customers. That’s not even mentioning that the ads on Geebo are reviewed by actual people to avoid such things as scams and illegal content.

Both of these sites, KSL and Geebo, prove that not only can G-Rated classifieds sites can be successful, but that there is a definite need for such family friendly marketplaces.

Sometimes, the fastest way to grow a business is to take it slow, especially when that business is trying something new or otherwise exploring uncharted territory.

Case in point: AOL’s Patch. The “hyperlocal” news site had aspirations of blanketing the nation with a network of online small-town “newspapers.”. But, after bleeding some $300 million and already shedding half of its 1,000-person workforce this past summer, parent company AOL this month gave up control of the news network to an investment firm for an undisclosed amount.

The problem? It grew too fast. It started as a small network of community sites in a handful of New Jersey communities but, after AOL acquired it and started dumping money into it, it wasn’t long until it was a network of 900 sites across the country.

The problem was that Patch’s business (and news) model hadn’t yet proven itself. As the news business has been shaken up, reinvented and shaken up again in the digital age, business models for news are not only varied (advertising-based vs. subscription-centric, for example) but also unstable. To build the model, they have to offer news that will attract readers, which, in turn, attracts advertisers. These sites need real reporters talking to real people in these communities, sitting in their meetings and attending their functions. Delivering that sort of community news and building relationships in the community takes resources (read: staff), money and, most importantly, patience.

When I started Geebo, there were no online marketplaces – and certainly no national networks of marketplaces – so the best approach was still anyone’s guess. Instead of trying to build a site that focused on categories – such as cars or real estate for sale – I chose to target a specific community. At the time, I was living in the Sacramento area – so that was Geebo’s first site.

After launch of that site, I could have started eyeing the next geographic market but instead, I focused on building relationships with potential buyers and sellers in Sacramento. By the time it came time for me to break into new markets, I had an established marketplace in my community, as well as some visitor metrics that I could point to.

Today, 13+ years later, Geebo’s listings are available in 1000’s of communities, the result of a slow-go approach. Just a few years after acquiring Patch for $7 million, AOL had shed a chunk of Patch’s workforce and has now handed over the reins to a group of investors who will do who-knows-what with what remains of the company.

For sake of disclosure: Patch approached me about my classifieds listings a few years ago but ultimately decided to go it on their own. That was certainly their choice – but here’s why it was an example of a bad business decision that eventually led to its demise. They were trying to reinvent the wheel in some parts of their business. If you’re trying to build something and someone you know has built a part that you need, why would you try to build that part from scratch?

No one is arguing that AOL should have moved at the same pace as a site like Geebo. I’m a small company with limited resources. They are a huge mega company with deep pockets. Still, at some point on the road to 900 sites, wasn’t there an opportunity to pause, take a step back and assess the business model to see if it’s working?

If they had, they might still be churning great ideas into strong business for the handful of sites that could eventually pave the way for others. Instead, potential readers will go another day without knowing how their planning commissions voted or whether the basketball team at the local high school won or lost.

I usually try to keep my politics out of my business decisions – but after the Great Government Shutdown of 2013, I think it’s time to speak up.

You see, when it comes to running my business, I am neither Republican or Democratic. I make decisions about how to run my business based on things like market demands, competitive forces and industry outlooks. I invest in my company when I can. I scale back when I must. But I never stop working.

I may be my own boss – but I answer to many others when it comes to running my online classifieds site. My clients expect their products and services to appear in the right places so they can reach the right audience. The visitors to my site expect a certain experience when they arrive. My partners expect me to deliver on my end of our agreements.

I guess that’s what frustrates me the most about the 16-day shutdown of the federal government. We are the people who the elected officials must answer to. We are their bosses, the people who put them into these positions of power and can have them removed. We are the ones who need to remind them that, if they continue to fail to do their jobs, they will lose them.

I can’t imagine telling my partners that I won’t be paying my bills this month or turning away visitors to my site because of some internal strife among the grown-ups who make decisions about the future direction of the company.

Frankly, that’s no way to run a business. And while I’ve never subscribed to the idea that a government can be run like a business, it’s also an unacceptable way to run a government. It doesn’t matter what the issue at-hand may be. You don’t shut the doors because you can’t make difficult decisions.

Yes, Washington is in shambles. Yes, the politicians have corrupted themselves by allowing their motives to be driven by special interests with big checkbooks. Yes, we’re probably looking at another showdown on Capitol Hill when the next budget battle and debt ceiling fight come up again early next year.

But the message we send now, ahead of the next big showdown should be that it’s never acceptable to use the country – whether it’s the credit rating or day-to-day operations – in a political game of chicken

Certainly, we can all agree to disagree when it comes to how our government is run. Whether you think we can spend our way out of a recession or believe that drastic spending cuts are the way to prosperity doesn’t matter. How you feel about Obamacare, Medicare or the Department of Energy should not come into play.

The message that all of us should be sending to Washington – regardless of our political leanings or beliefs – is that it’s never OK to shut the door to government or to become a deadbeat nation. It’s a good thing for the politicians that the government isn’t run like a business. If it were, they’d all be fired.

The purpose of a classified ad is to reach the largest audience possible, casting the largest net, if you will. After all, whether you’re selling a car, renting a home or advertising a service for hire, the goal of the classified ad is to make sure that a large number of people see that ad

So, why would anyone want to hinder the ability to reach the largest audience? Through a lawsuit, that’s exactly what craigslist was trying to do by arguing that it held copyright on the user-posted ads that appear on its sites. But, earlier this month, a judge ruled against the large classified site, noting that the site itself – craigslist, in this case – does not hold copyright over an ad unless it’s granted exclusive rights to it.

Call it a victory for the “scrapers” in that the courts have defended the ability to take an ad from one site and repurpose it on another. As a site owner, I’m definitely not advocating the idea that a new site could steal ads from Geebo and make a profit from it. But I also understand the importance of large net.

By law, scraping may be allowed – but I think of it as the lazy approach. At Geebo, we take pride in our syndication efforts. We create solid business relationships with other sites to maximize the exposure for the people who have something to advertise. Geebo has relationships with real estate sites and car buying sites, for example, to not only put Geebo’s ads into bigger nets but also to put other ads in front of Geebo visitors.

For us, syndicating content is good business. We’re open and upfront about it, making sure our customers know what we’re doing and why. To us, scraping content is not a good business practice, despite the widespread practice. It’s a free ride on the sweat of someone else’s work. Still, the court was right in noting that the ad itself does not belong to the site publisher but instead to the user.

We know that publishers are constantly looking to harvest Geebo’s content. But instead of blocking them, we reach out directly and try to establish a bona fide partnership that includes cost-per-click/lead pricing, something that’s fair to both parties.

Bottom line: The content is out there for the taking. But site publishers can either attempt to block the practice of scraping the way craigslist did or they can embrace it as a new business opportunity, the way Geebo has.

The courts have spoken, leaving the ball back in our courts so that we can embrace the best business practices. The goal is to make sure the user – whether someone looking to buy or sell – has the best experience.

A friend of mine, knowing that I closely follow news about human trafficking, introduced me to a new resource – a sharp journalist out of San Diego who is doing more than just following criminal cases that involve human trafficking.

This reporter, a woman named Elizabeth Aguilera, is also looking at the trends around labor and sex trafficking – putting names and faces on the victims and, more importantly, illustrating how this isn’t just a crime that victimizes immigrants. Human trafficking is impacting kids right in our own neighborhoods, the kids we’ve seen grow from toddlers to teens before our very eyes.

Earlier this month, Aguilera published a piece in the San Diego Union Tribune that raised awareness around a trend that, sadly, isn’t new. The headline of that story speaks volumes: “U.S. sex trafficking victims are mostly American kids.” The headline is based on the revelation in a report released by California Attorney General Kamala Harris last year that 72 percent of human trafficking victims are Americans, not foreigners. More importantly, it was also revealed that victims are now younger – typically ages 12-14, officials said.

Statistics can be funny things. People like to twist facts and stats to meet the definitions of the point they’re trying to make at any given time. As a journalist, it would have been easy for someone like Aguilera to post the stats, find some official to talk about them and then write a simple story that might easily be overlooked.

But Aguilera instead focused the beginning of her story around a typical teenager who found a job as a bookkeeper for a small, home-based business and instead found herself forced into a months-long ordeal of beatings and sexual slavery. Her employer – a pimp who set a $1,200 daily prostitution quota for the 17-year-old girl – is now serving 30 years in prison.

As the owner of a classified ads business, I understand that people are being victimized through the Internet. I understand that predators use classified ads to find their victims and evade authorities. As such, I refuse to give these predators a place to lure victims into worlds of slavery. Geebo does not host personals ads where many of these encounters originate. Sadly, some of my counterparts in the industry still turn a blind-eye about the ads that are running on their sites, so long as the ads generate revenue.

In the end, it all comes down to awareness – making our young children aware of the dangers on the Internet, making our law enforcement officials aware of the way predators use the Internet and, most importantly, making the public aware that these sorts of things are happening – not just in third-world countries, but in our own neighborhoods with our own kids.

Trafficking cases are up across the nation – that’s the bad news. The good news is that, through education and awareness, this trend can be reversed. It must be reversed. I applaud journalists like Aguilera who work on the front lines every day to make sure that we, the people, are aware.

I wish they would finish the research on how the pornography industry goes hand in hand with trafficking these days, girls and women are being heavily trafficked in the porn business these days….they lure them with modeling jobs under false pretenses, isolate them and encourage drug use to keep them compliant.

Profits of crime, terrorist financing, money laundering seem to be the big three in terms of building statistics, interpolating information from dozens of sources, and making arrrests. How is it that human trafficking does not have the same investigatory systems in place?